Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine's capital kills 14

Russia launched waves of missiles and drones targeting Kyiv early Monday that killed at least 14 people, authorities said, hours after Ukraine’s president warned that a large-scale attack was imminent.

Another 60 people were wounded, according to local officials, as emergency workers combed through rubble looking for survivors at residential high-rise buildings in two locations that suffered direct hits.

The new attack came days after a Russian strike killed 31 people in the capital on Thursday, the deadliest for the capital this year. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the bombardment was retaliation for Ukraine’s recent long-range strikes, which have caused severe fuel shortages and pressured President Vladimir Putin.

More than four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine’s advances in drone technology have given it an edge in recent months, analysts and Western officials say. Strikes on supply routes behind the front line have stripped the Russian army of momentum on the battlefield, they say, slowing its advance and driving up the cost.

Cars and private garages of residents burn after Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. Reuters

But Russia is now exploiting a different kind of momentum: gaps in Ukraine’s air defenses, which remain heavily reliant on the U.S. Patriot systems to intercept ballistic missiles it can rarely shoot down any other way. The war in the Middle East has strained the global supply of Patriot interceptors, already produced in limited numbers - a shortage now most of all being felt in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia fired hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at the country overnight, targeting mainly Kyiv and 29 ballistic missiles that were launched struck their targets, underscoring how little Ukraine can do to stop them.

"To intercept ballistics, we need the means for interception,” Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on national television, commenting on last night’s attack. "Russians are certainly using the fact that there is a serious deficit of interceptor missiles now, in Ukraine and the world.”

Rescuers and Red Cross volunteers carry the body of a resident found under debris at the site of an apartment building, which was hit during Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. Reuters

Ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that Ukrainian forces had performed well against drones and cruise missiles but not against Russian ballistic missiles - a shortfall he blamed on insufficient interceptor supplies. He urged US and European partners to leave the summit with strong decisions to bolster Ukraine’s air defense and protect civilian lives.

"As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies’ stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep "vanquishing” residential buildings. The United States and Europe have enough strength to stop this terror,” he said in a statement following the attack.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack targeted weapons factories in Kyiv, including sites it said produce drones, sea drones, armored vehicles and missiles, as well as facilities that repair air defense systems and fuel and energy infrastructure in the city and surrounding region. The claims could not be independently verified.

Russia’s aerial attacks on Ukraine have repeatedly hit civilian areas. More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations.
"These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives,” said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration, in a post on Telegram.

Frightened by explosions, a cat cuddles up to its owner during search and rescue works at the damaged residential building following Russia's missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. AP

A residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed, he said. In the Darnytsia district, several multistory buildings were damaged and people were believed to be trapped under the rubble.

Meanwhile, an energy provider in Russia-occupied Crimea reported a blackout across the peninsula due to "external impact.” The Moscow-appointed head of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Ukrainian attacks cut power supplies to the city early Monday, but it was later restored using backup equipment.

Russia's Yaroslavl region Gov. Mikhail Yavrayev said two people were wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on the city of the same name. He said over 70 Ukrainian drones were downed as they attacked the city. Yavrayev didn’t say if any facilities were damaged, but Astra online news outlet said the attack targeted an oil refinery in the city, causing a fire.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 519 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Associated Press